Plants I hat Ihink, tat, Love
Like Humans!
New Proof the Botanic Wor
Matches Man's Every Trait
HUMAN SACRIFICE
Above, Sketch Depicting a Legend of India That Tells, How One Tribe Feed*
Beautiful Young Girls to Man-Eating Plants Which the Tribe Worship*.
JUST the other day the very staid
and scientific—Department of Ag
riculture made the startling an
nouncement that plants and flowers
eat, think, love and dance like human
beings.
After long experimentation and ob
servation the government botanists
concluded that plants have developed
by experience the mode of existence
best for their welfare, in the same way
as have men and animals. Careful
study has shown the manner in which
plants apply their faculties for their
own well being, that they are quite as
capable of conscious efforts in their
limited sphere of existence as any
other living creature.
Take, for example, the “Scythian
Lamb,""which gets its name from its
appearance. When the "lamb” gets
hungry it acta almost exactly like a
human being in the same situation.
Figuratively, it glances around, spots
its food, and literally turns about on
its roots and feeds upon the surround
ing herbage.
Then there’s the carniverous “Vir
gin Flytrap” which thrives best on the
sour blueberry soil of its native east
ern North Carolina. This plapt, which
at maturity has as many as 40 feed
ing leaves, lives on files and bugs
which innocently wander into its traps.
The traps then snap together quickly
when any object touches the feelers
inside.
If the object is an insect the “Vir
gin Flytrap” absorbs it in about a
week, leaving nothing except a shell.
The plant secretes a gastric juice, sim
ilar to the kind employed in the diges
tive processes of humans, that makes
the insect edible and absorbs it com
pletely in due time. The "Flytrap” is
extremely choosy about its food, just
as many people are. If the meal is
unappetising, the traps open within
two hours and wait for new nourish
ment.
Plants display human intelligence in
propagating their kind. The earliest
and most primitive plants had no sex
but reproduced by division of cells.
> Then as time went by, thread-like bod
ies, similar to pond-weeds, consisting
of single cells strung out end to end.
reached out ‘and joined together to
form new cells.
*
The Virgin Flytrap Which Grows
«s North Carolina. Any Flies or
Bug® That Wander into the Open
lam Are Caught by Them
They Snap Together. Within
Week’s Time the Hapless Prey
Absorbed Completely.
F 9 S
TREE-KILLER
Here’s What the
Supplejack Vine
Looks Like as It
Slowly Strangles a
Pine Tree to Death.
Eventually plants con
ceived the brilliant idea
of making priests of the
insects that played about them
They used the insects to carry
ponen to other plants and to
bring about a "marriage” that
finally resulted in fertilization.
And today a sex system is
highly perfected, the usual
manner in which most plants
continue to propagate.
The Gorsc is an excellent example
of pollenlzation by insects. Ordinarily
this flower is closed and the only
place a bee can alight is on a little
step, or platform, at the sides of the
petals. The moment an industrious
honey seeker settles down on the floral
porch his slight weight causes the en
tire corolla to spring open violently
and shower him with pollen.
After thus unburdening itself and
insuring the continuity of the species,
the Gorse at once hangs down deject
edly. no longer the object of insect
regard. Other plants, like the Lupine
and the English Bird's-Foot Trefoil
react the same way whenever tiny in
sects alight upon them.
Plants show thought, too, say bot
anists, in the manner in which they
respond to light, heat and cold. Pro
fessor Haberlandt of Germany de
clared plant "eyes," which in reality
are epidermal cells in the thin, trans
parent skin of the leaves, enabled the
plants not only to perceive t{m dif
ference between light and darkness,
but to respond to the stimulus of light
so they could place their leaves In ex
actly the right position to continually
get the greatest possible amount of
suns^l ne.
Another manifestation of plant rea
seeing is displayed when cold weather
come*. Like people, they don't believe
in staying out uncovered and freezing
to death. These members of the botanic
World wisely withdraw their starch
and chlorophyll Into their innermost
layers. The upper parts of the plants
LIVING “INSECTICIDE
The Nepenthe* Plant from Borneo Which
Catches Insects In Its Voracious Mouth and
Uses Them as Its Food 8uppty.
(.tractive Julia
deed la Feeding
sects to the
‘Darllugtonta” in
Washington, D. C.,
v\ hero the Department of
Agriculture Has the Un
usual Plant on Display.
may -wither and die away,
but the important food ma
terial is in their roots and
provides a good start on the
return to life in the spring
Concentrated observation
of vegetable growths by bot
anists has proven that this
sign of reasoning by plants
is not merely instinctive
Under the stimulus of a
great amount of light and
heat—whether it be arti
ficial or otherwise-—plants
will grow rapidly and pro
duce large leaves. But the
moment this heat and light
Is taken away, the plant im
mediately begins to store up its food
in its roots.
Climbing -vines are another source
trotn which botanists gather scientific
data that backs up their assertion that
plants think like human beings. A vine
of this type, in need of a prop, will
creep along the ground toward the
nearest vertical support. If, this sup
port should be shifted, as scientists
have purposely done many times to
bear out. their'theory, the vine will
immediately change the direction of
its (progress until it reaches the object.
Like eotne people, a
number of plants have
even been found to be
psychic. Royal Dickson
writes of these types in
his book, "The Personal
ity of Plants." The Indi
an Licorice la an expert
floral barometer, so keen
ly sensitive to every at
mospheric condition that
observers have been able
to foretell from its ac
tions cyclones, hurricanes
and volcanic eruptions.
The Compass plant has
such a keen sense of di
rection that Us flowers,
and quite frequently the
edges of its leaves, point
so truly to the north that
travelers aware of this
amazing characteristic
have used it as s natural
guide.
The strong feeling oi
self-preservation, so nat
ural in human beings, has
\ its counterpart in various
members of the plant
world. The Qiant Cactus
of the American desert
has learned to atore up water to pro
vide itself with drink in the aeason of
drought that always oocura In the sur
roundlnga In which the Cactua Uvea.
As many as five barrels of water have
been taken from a single specAnen of
this Giant Cactua.
Then, like aome toughened deaert
wanderer who carries a gun to keep
off wild animals, the Cacti have armed
themselves with long, vicious spikes
that keep thirsty, foraging animals
from tapping their hidden reservoirs
Like two weak nations who form
an alliance to present a stronger front,
plants do likewise with insects. They
depend upon the Insects to keep their
leaves and stalks free from obnoxious*
visitors and for this beneficial co
operation they build homes for their
roving defenders.
The Cow-Horn Orchid grows galle
ries for ants, which drive away cock
roaches and caterpillars and oth
. er such enemies. The Ant Nest
/ —
till excellent Study of the Milk
weed Flytrap at Work. The Hone'
Bee Baa Been Caufbt by the Flow
era of the Plant and . WU! Be Held
la a Death Grip Until It Drops
to Death from Sheer Exhaustion
\ Hul.v Ulnnce (I
the Photo on thn
l-eft Might Maks
You Think You
Worn hooking nt •
Hrn.cn of Ducks,
hot Your Eyes Am
Deceiving Yon.
Whst Yon Bee Is
the "Darllngtonl*
t'sllfornln" Plant,
Which Buhslsts on
Mosqnltoes.
L
A
era. harbor the Industrious little in
jects with the same purpose to mind.
There are ktllers in the plant world,
too, even more deadly than the human
variety. Supplejack, in particular, ts
renowned for ita murderous tenden
cies. Aa soon as It takes seed in the
soil and begins to germinate It begins
to awing ita slender self about, feel'
ing for a nearby tree
The moment the Supplejack does
reach Its objective it7 begins to ooll
itself abput ita plant neighbor like a
boa constrictor. It does ndt squsess
its victim very tightly at first, but liv
ing trees grow by adding a new layer
of wood each year beneath their bark
and this in time tightens the homicidal
Supplejack about the trunks.
As time goes by "Jack's" vine is
sunk deeply into the wood of its host,
and sooner or iater the food traveling
through tho tree trunk is cut off and
death results.
Incredible as it tnay seem, Hupple
ck often commits suicide. Branches
of the same vine are known to climb
their own bodies and choke themselves
to death!
Among other findings made by ths
Department of Agriculture is the fact
that plants "dance exquisitely," wav
ing about with all the intricate side
swhys of an accomplished fan dancer.
"This doesn’t mean, though.” said Gov
ernment Botanist O. M. Freeman,
"that they dance in the sense of put
ting one foot forward and bringing
the other back while beeping time to
music. But call it what you will, It’s
the same kind of a movement. Through
a study of micro-photographs we dis
covered that plants are always moving
gracefully as though In the midst of
a simple but extraordinarily lovely
waits.*'
Plants dance to music, too; they
are responsive to rhythm and affected
by discord, for they have nervous sys
tems.
Ho startling has been the result of
the new study of plants and their sim
ilarity to humans, botanists have
stated that you can name a human
virtue or sin, good quality or bad, and
find its counterpart in the plant world.
Such disclosures naturally make one
wonder whether plants have souls and
spirits. Royal Dickson answers ths
query by saying “No man who has
carefully and conscientloualy studied
them can wholly deny it They exhibit
* pluck, a determination, a moral per-'
severance which awakens all our ad
miration. Where men would Ue down
and die, they go steadily forward'''
1 <vi»s rcaiuica oj uuksic, *uv.